I have a family member that is currently on hemodialysis Mon,Wed,Fri. She is a end stage cancer patient, not sure how much longer she will be here. She has asked me to find out options about doing dialysis at home when she is too weak to physically make it to clinic. We have two RN’s in the family that are willing to assist her in doing home hd.
I really don’t think I have a lot of time to figure this out. What are our options? She has insurance, and money is no issue.
I called a couple of companies that said training takes months. She doesn’t have that long, and doesn’t have the energy to train for that long.
Is there a company that will supply a home machine and assist a RN in training at the patients home?
She ad both kidneys removed due to cancer, it has metastasised to the liver,lungs. Several side effects are increasing daily and are getting harder to manage. I really need to ease her mind by getting her home hd.
Thanks
There are multiple options for dialysis at home. You can read about all the options following the link on the Home Dialysis Central homepage to Types of Home Dialysis. There is even a comparison chart that compares in-center dialysis to all the types of home dialysis to help someone choose what fits best with their lifestyle.
Medicare approves dialysis clinics to provide home training and support. The dialysis clinic provides the equipment and dialysis supplies no matter what type of home dialysis the patient chooses. The dialysis facility bills Medicare and/or insurance for dialysis just like they do now for in-center dialysis.
Home HD generally takes up to 6 weeks to learn. If the RNs in the family are willing to be her care partners, they may pick it up faster than a non-medical person.
She might also want to consider peritoneal dialysis. She would need to have a peritoneal catheter surgicallyl placed. PD catheters are usually placed below the beltline on one side or the other. A presternal PD catheter can be placed in the mid-chest area if preferred/needed. A patient can learn to do PD in about a week and can do PD with or without help. Patients on PD can do manual exchanges during the day or use a PD cycler machine overnight while sleeping.
You can find clinics that offer home dialysis from the homepage link to “Find a clinic.” You can search for clinics by location (even by distance from her zip code) and by different treatment types. I’d suggest searching by location and seeing what treatments are offered rather than narrowing your search by type of treatment.
My mom was an RN, so is my sister. I could see the two RN’s picking it up in a couple of weeks. I would be shocked if the training took more than a few weeks.